The Trump Virus

Now we get the news that maybe coronaviruses will always be with us, culling the herd, for all eternity. There's a cheery thought.

And a big victory for FREEDOM!

You know, it's odd nobody has claimed Jeff Bezos cooked up C19 in Wuhan. He's been the prime beneficiary.

It's bad enough that we can't get all the people vaccinated.  Now we have to worry about deer?  Lions, hyenas and minks?

It's the beginning of the apocalypse, a harbinger of things to come.

I thought the Germans had more sense than this.

Germany Reports New Record of 50,000 Covid-19 Cases in Single Day

Minnesota is in trouble.

Minnesota Calls Up National Guard as Covid-19 Overwhelms Hospitals

Quote :

Roughly 400 members of the National Guard have been training over the past week as certified nursing assistants and temporary nursing aides and will be deployed primarily to nursing homes in an effort to shore up staff. The members of the National Guard are expected to help out for at least three weeks, according to Fox 9.

A couple of interesting (and slightly horrifying) graphs in here.
Why does Minnesota have so many COVID-19 cases?

What I find amazing is how many people seem to be saying "But our vaccination rate is above average, at 68%". Maybe so, but that's not enough. It doesn't matter if you have a better rate than Floriduh. Tell me you're 85% vaccinated and I'll join you in being (a little) surprised.

COVID patients overwhelming the hospitals -- all over the world, in fact -- are still overwhelmingly unvaccinated.

That's all you need to know. The solution is blindingly obvious.

And all the unvaccinated folks -- through their own fault, or their government's -- are screwing up the future for the rest of us. Say hello to Omicron, the variant from hell.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Conspiracy and untruths drive Europe's Covid protests

The U.S. doesn't have a monopoly on stupidity.

Kinda surprised no Southern Senator has raised the specter of "Nullification" on the issue of mask mandates. Many Confederate states have never really cottoned to the idea of a federal government.

A comparison between India and the United States on COVID:

Population:

• India 1,399,050,262
  
• U.S. 333,728,343
  

COVID Cases:

• India 34,572,523
  
• U.S. 49,077,695
  

COVID Deaths:

• India 468,554
  
• U.S. 799,312
  

COVID Tests:

• India 638,247,889
  
• U.S. 748,307,879
  

COVID Vaccinations:

• India 781,075,743
  
• U.S. 231,367,686
  

A bit dubious, because the Indian case and death numbers are suspected to be way under-counted. But even so, given the population difference, The US performance compares very unfavorably.

Early indications are that Omicron may have fairly mild symptoms.  Let's hope that assessment holds up in the long run.

Moderna says it'll have a booster for it in 100 days.

Discovered in South Africa, identified in half a dozen European countries (but not the US)...

So OF COURSE it's a Democratic trick. How does something this stupid even get media coverage???

”Magic Dirt”

You can’t make this shit up, folks. Right wing social media has been pushing “magic dirt” to cure COVID and as a preventative. You're supposed to bathe in it, rub it all over your body, put it in your food, drink it mixed with water, even eat it directly.  

• It costs $110 for a 4½ oz baggie.
  
  
• It comes from a landfill.
  
  
• It has dangerous levels of lead and arsenic.
  

Because, you know, you’re too smart and too concerned about your health to get the vaccine shot....

Quote :

Wong said that for two months she dissolved a half-teaspoon of the black stuff in a glass of water and drank it every day. But unlike people in her new BOO Facebook group who posted miraculous testimonials of cured diseases, weight loss, clearer skin, whiter teeth, regrown hair, reclaimed energy, expelled worms and even changes in eye color (from brown to blue), Wong didn’t feel like any toxins were leaving her body. In fact, she started having stomach pains.

Here is proof positive that the COVID virus was cooked up in a lab by Democrats, specifically to target Republicans, the unvaxxed, and other patriots.  Dr Fauci is nothing but Josef Mengele.

I guess ER nurses are constitutionally geared toward compassion and empathy, but Jesus Christ. When do you tell people "You brought this on yourself, you fucking moron"?
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/opinions/nurse-audrey-wendt-michigan-covid-message-goldynia/index.html

Note: I am not an ER nurse, nor do I play one on TV.

Omicron went from 3% of all cases in the country last week... to 73% this week.

It is HIGHLY transmissible.

At what point -- weighing all of the evidence and circumstances behind this rise -- do we stop calling this the "Covid virus" and start calling it "the Republican virus"?

I'm happy to keep calling it the Trump virus.

The original COVID-19 ("alpha"?) was The Trump Virus.

The delta variant, which arose in July 2021, should be known as The India Variant.

The omicron variant, which popped up last week, is The Fox Variant.  What's truly frightening about the Fox variant is that having had a previous Covid infection is no prophylaxis against Fox.  All those Scott Atlas Republicans who said we should allow everyone to get Covid and thus develop herd immunity, are now going to have to face the fact that no such immunity exists because the virus mutates.

Quote :

Worryingly, Omicron was associated with a 5.4 times higher risk of reinfection compared with Delta. The study put the protection offered by a previous infection at around 19 percent and with a booster jab at between 55 and 80 percent.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/12/20/omicron-is-more-transmissible-but-is-it-really-milder

Quote :

For example, for somebody who's previously been infected with COVID, their chance of getting reinfected with omicron is almost 5½-fold higher than reinfection with delta.

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/reinfection-rates-of-omicron-and-people-need-to-take-this-seriously/

Hospitalizations and deaths are nearly 100% among the unvaccinated.  The unvaccinated are overwhelmingly conservative, Republican, uneducated and rural.

God apparently thinks there's too many rural conservatives.  Who am I to disagree?

SCOTUS to make emergency vaccine mandate ruling

Hmmm.  I honestly have no idea which way they'll rule.  

Which itself is a searing indictment.

Unsurprisingly, the anti-vaccine movement traces its roots back to the Koch brothers. Raise your hand if you're surprised.

Last night at dinner we turned on the local news.  I wanted more information on the record cold snap we're experiencing.  Yesterday's high temperature was 24°.  Seattle's previous "low high" was 32°, so we have had our lowest low in history and our highest high, all within 2021.

But alas, all the local news wanted to talk about was Covid.  Numbers are high, unvaccinated people are dropping like flies, Xmas was probably a superspreader and New Years is coming up fast.

Bah, I knew all that.

Switched over to national news.  They too were running Covid news: numbers are high, unvaccinated people are dropping like flies, Xmas was probably a superspreader and New Years is coming up fast.

Bah.

Switched to MSNBC to see what political news was happening.  They were talking about Covid, how the science behind it is too complicated for people to understand so Biden's approval rating is down.  The commentators said Biden is doing a good job of fighting the Covid infestation, but a lousy job of explaining it to the voters.  They suggested the facts be personalized, so they're easier to follow: call it "the Trump virus" and "the Biden vaccine."  Plus, numbers are high, unvaccinated people are dropping like flies, Xmas was probably a superspreader and New Years is coming up fast.

Decided to try a stand-up comedy special on Netflix, found a new one by Jim Gaffigan who is sometimes pretty good.  The first ten minutes of his routine was on Covid: the numbers are high...

In utter surrender I turned over to the Kid's Baking Championship on the Food Network.  They, at least, had other things on their minds.

Forecast high today is 50. For once I can gloat.

Republicans are REMARKABLY shame-free:

Quote :

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) requested assistance from the federal government for coronavirus testing sites, additional medical personnel and monoclonal antibody treatments as the rapidly spreading omicron variant causes an increase in cases and hospitalizations in his state.

Abbott, who is vaccinated, made the request the same day he touted a court victory over the Biden administration’s attempt to implement mask and vaccine mandates in the state’s Head Start program. Abbott has fought against vaccine mandates throughout the pandemic, issuing an executive order in October barring vaccine mandates in Texas and accusing the Biden administration of “bullying many private entities into imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates.”

If it was me, I'd say, "Fuck you Abbott." Or maybe, "Reverse your abortion ban and we'll talk, you duplicitous cocksucker."